The Wired Weigh-in for April 11, 2007

Want the answers? The signs are out there if you’re looking for them. The Anchor Desk sees them.

A sign you’re living in a crime-infested dump

There’s so much crime and kidnapping in your town, police measure ransom money like an economic indicator and consider their ability to whittle ransoms through negotiation to be a successful crime deterrent. That’s the case in Mexico City.

The proliferation of “Pay Toll” signs won’t happen, at least for two years. The Texas House — with a rambunctious 134-5 vote — voted for a moratorium on any new projects under the ambitious (and fool-hardy) Trans-Texas Corridor boondoggle.

A sign that you live in a small, boring town

Sans movie theaters, an active nightlife or even a minimal arts scene, folks in small towns rely on all-out, take-no-prisoners political skunkfights as their leading form of entertainment. If there was, for example, a multiplex in Castroville, odds are that the current political quagmire — with a councilmen accusing mayors of misconduct and the seven former mayors responding in kind — wouldn’t be happening. By the way, a smart local band will adopt “The Seven Mayors” as its name.

A sign that justice works

A West Texas grand jury Tuesday indicted two former Texas Youth Commission administrators on sex abuse charges, the beginning of the end of a shameful episode of exploitation and cover-up in the state’s juvenile correction system. Ray Brookins and John Paul Hernandez, both 41, were indicted on charges of sexually abusing six youths, ages 16 to 19, who were incarcerated at the West Texas State School in Pyote in 2004 and 2005.

A sign that justice needs some tweaking

Because the FBI has shifted most of its focus to fighting the war on terror, thousands of white-collar criminals are avoiding prosecution or being charged with lesser, state charges. “If there’s an opportunity to prosecute, we certainly want it, but prevention (of terrorism) will trump prosecution (of other crimes) every time,” Ralph Diaz, the special agent in charge of the San Antonio division, said in the story.

A sign that the garbage is being taken out

Three city sanitation workers subdued a suspect after the man exposed himself and tried to abduct an Edison High School student who was walking to school Monday morning. The girl ran toward the workers, who held him until police arrived.

I go out every afternoon looking for trouble. If you know where I can find trouble, or if you want to cause trouble for me, could you trouble yourself to post a comment or contact me?